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* DB/C Newsletter *
* August 2004 *
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News and Comments
I continue to be disgusted with the state of the patent system in the
United States. And unfortunately most other industrialized countries are
following the US lead in granting ridiculous software patents.
Recently a Microsoft spokesperson noted that his company plans to
aggressively build up its patent portfolio. Microsoft currently owns more
than 5,000 patents. That spokesperson said that Microsoft plans to have
more than 10,000 patents by the end of 2005. That's 1 new patent per year
for every 8 Microsoft employees. I've got to believe that if (or when)
lawyers gain significant management control of Microsoft, there will negative
repercussions for our entire industry.
Unfortunately, some companies are deciding not to use LINUX because
of patent and copyright concerns. Even with the probable failure of the
SCO-IBM lawsuit, companies continue to make decisions based on their fear
of litigation instead of on technical merits. That's a shame.
On a more positive note, DB/C DX 13.1 was released this month. To
those of you who eagerly awaited this release so you could start using
Eclipse 3.0 - thanks for your patience. I think you'll agree that it
was worth the wait. This month's article describes the new features
in the DB/C DX 13.1 release.
don.wills@dbcsoftware.com
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DB/C DX 13.1
DB/C DX 13.1 has many new features. The most significant new features
are support for Eclipse 3.0, support for CUPS printing in UNIX, and support
for unixODBC as the default SQL interface in UNIX.
As noted in last month's newsletter, Eclipse 3.0 is the latest release
of Eclipse. There were significant changes in this release of Eclipse that
caused older Eclipse plugins not to work with the new release. The DB/C
DX Development Toolkit for Eclipse (DDT) is one of the affected plugins.
So the DDT in DX 13.0 only works with Eclipse 2.1, and the new DDT that is
part of DX 13.1 works with Eclipse 3.0 (and hopefully with all Eclipse 3.x
releases).
In addition to working with Eclipse 3.0, here is a list of several
enhancements in the new DDT:
. any font may now be specified for controls in the panel/dialog editor
. compiler status messages are now available in the Properties view
. the compiler now allows include names with a volume id
. additional compiler options are now available
. compiler output files (.dbc and .dbg) are deleted or renamed when the
program is deleted or renamed
. the DDT debugger now supports perusing the call-return stack
The January 2004 DB/C Newsletter provided an overview of the Common
Unix Printing System (CUPS). Essentially this is a new, more full-featured
interface for managing printers and printed output. Most of the printer
features that were only available in Windows are now available in UNIX with
CUPS. Here is a list:
. support for paper bins
. banner page support
. job name support
. number of copies
. page orientation
. page size
. two sided printing
Microsoft's creation of ODBC solved the problem of connecting with
an arbitrary database from standard Windows applications. unixODBC solves
the same problem in UNIX. The inclusion of support for unixODBC in DB/C DX
13.1 means that the runtime will no longer need to be re-linked to run DB/C
programs that use SQLEXEC to communicate with an SQL database. Information
about unixODBC can be found at www.odbc.org.
The CUPS and unixODBC features of DB/C DX 13.1 are available only for
certain versions of LINUX and UNIX. The dxreadme.txt file included with the
DB/C DX 13.1 software provides details.
There are various enhancements for GUI programming in DB/C DX 13.1.
Here is a list of new GUI features:
. a modifiable icon control (VICON)
. a checkbox control with text on the left (LTCHECKBOX)
. right and center justified columns in listbox and dropbox
. query of the status of a tree control
. filtering by extension(s) the files shown in an open file dialog
. statusbar may now be specified in the window prep string
. a window minimized message (WMIN) is sent when a window is minimized
. help text messages (tooltips) are now sized more intelligently
. right click messages are now sent to the queue in more situations
. the dbcdx.gui.pandlgscale option now works for listboxes with boxtabs
Various other enhancements are included in DX 13.1. Here is a list:
. Smart Client now allows for translation between PC BIOS characters and
UNICODE/Latin1; this solves non-English character display problems
. a new feature has been added to the reformat utility that allows for
file-based translation of record fields; this new feature is superior
to existing reformat command line options
. the compiler now handles twice as many hidden labels (hidden labels are
labels created for statements like IF, LOOP, FOR, etc.)
. PCL and PDF output now have the same relative page positioning; an
option exists for backward compatibility
. PDF files with black and white images are now smaller
. the WAIT and COMWAIT statements now cancel FILEPI
This new release continues the process of making DB/C DX a superior
business-oriented application development tool. The addition of new features
is based on requests from customers, so let us know your suggestions so we
can make the next release even better.
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DB/C DX Class Schedule
Class: DB/C DX Fundamentals
Date: October 4-6, 2004
Location: to be determined
For information, send email to admin@dbcsoftware.com.
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